CMP Publications, publishers of Information Week, Computer Reseller News, EE Times and 12 other magazines, announced August 15th that it has reached an agreement to acquire Windows and OS/2 Magazine from SBO Inc., the magazine's parent company. CMP plans to change the name of the magazine to Windows Magazine beginning with the November 1991 issue.
Leading the Windows Magazine management team is Publisher Drake Lundell, who has been with CMP for seven years. Lundell, who has been involved in computer publishing for more than 25 years, was most recently Publisher of Information Week, and has previously been Editor-in-Chief of PC Week and Editor of Computerworld.
"Windows and other graphical user interfaces are changing the way people look at computing -- there is truly a revolution underway in the marketplace," Lundell stated. "Windows Magazine will provide a forum for both readers and advertisers in this emerging market."
Reaction to the announcement from industry figures, contacted by telephone and in person at the Windows and OS/2 Conference in Boston on the day of the announcement, was generally positive.
Steve Ballmer, Microsoft Senior Vice President for Systems Software, said, "The excitement around the Windows phenomenon is growing stronger every day, and we look forward to helping CMP deliver timely and in-depth information on Windows to their readers in the years to come."
Matt Gray, President of Hilgraeve, said "It's a logical move because I don't think there's going to be much overlap in interest between OS/2 and Windows."
Joe Bolton, Product Manager for Wall Data's Rumba product, said "I think there's a real need for an all-Windows magazine -- probably more than one."
Stan Politi, Show Director for CM Ventures, the firm that sponsors the Windows and OS/2 Conferences, said "Basically, you'll have a Microsoft book and an IBM book, and that's a wise decision. We'd have preferred the one magazine, because it's a better fit with what we're doing, but it's a good business move."
IBM Demonstrates Windows in Standard Mode under OS/2 2.0
Joe Guglielmi, IBM General Manager of Marketing and Business Development, Personal Systems, introduced his partner, Lee Reiswig, Assistant General Manager of Programming, as "The Blue Ninja," at a demonstration of OS/2 2.0 beta development on August 15th. This demonstration included, for the first time publicly, Windows 3.0 applications running in Standard Mode -- although they were not yet running in "seamless" windows on the Presentation Manager (PM) desktop. The demonstration also included eleven DOS applications running simultaneously in PM Windows, including DOS 4.0, DOS 5.0, DR-DOS 5.0, Quarterdeck's Desqview, and Lotus 123 version 3.1 plus; among others. The demonstration also included simultaneous access to LAN Server, Netware and VINES networks.
Guglielmi also gave a presentation on IBM's overall systems strategy, referring to it as "our distributed strategy for the '90s." Elements of this presentation included introduction of a new OS/2 2.X product in 1992, incorporation of Lotus Notes technology in OS/2 in 1992, availability of Distributed Computing Environment (DCE) and Distributed Management Environment (DME) features and the introduction of a new, object-oriented operating system sometime later. Guglielmi announced that IBM had 600,000 copies of OS/2 licensed world-wide by the end of 1990 and expects to have over 1 million by the end of 1991. He also announced that IBM currently has more than 3,000 OS/2 developers, that some 90 ISVs are working on 32-bit applications for OS/2 2.0 and 32 OEM vendors are committed to having OS/2 run on their systems. And he alluded to increased attention to OS/2 from corporations, announcing that "Price-Waterhouse has re-evaluated their plans to install DOS and -- a popular DOS extender -- on their systems, and have gone to OS/2."
Analysts at the presentation were impressed with the technology, which also included demonstrations of the new, object-oriented Workplace Shell user interface for 32-bit applications, identical programs running in 32-bit OS/2 and 16-bit Windows, showing 30% to 100% performance increases in the 32-bit applications, and IBM's new Workframe/2 modular development environment.
Microsoft plans to move LAN Manager to NT
David Thacher, Senior Product Manager in Microsoft's Network Business Unit, amplified on Microsoft's plans for its LAN Manager environment, during an interview on August 14th. According to Thacher, Microsoft will release LAN Manager 2.1 by the end of this year, with a number of significant new features, including TCP/IP protocol stacks, very large hard disk support (up to 7.8 Gigabytes), close integration with Windows version 3.1, SNMP support, ability to integrate with Apple Macintosh computers, interoperability with Netware, and a full asynchronous remote access capability allowing network services to be accessed using a modem. LAN Manager 2.1 will ship with OS/2 version 1.31, featuring LADDR-architected drivers, and running on over 100 platforms, and will include the advanced, HPFS-386 file system, featuring high performance, fault tolerance and local security.
Thacher also said Windows-NT will become a new server platform, for both LAN Manager and SQL Server., some time in 1992. He amplified on this, saying "The Windows-NT Server will augment, not replace, the OS/2-based product. We do see it as the primary server platform from then on, but we have no religion about what we support."
As to interoperation with IBM's LAN Server, Thacher said, "We will have converged LAN Manager and LAN Server products by the end of the year, with the same APIs, protocols, and transports." He went on to say, however, "We're confused about IBM's network strategy, and we're not working closely with them."
Where was Microsoft?
Officials of CM Ventures expressed confusion and irritation with Microsoft's last minute decision to skip the Windows and OS/2 conference in Boston, August 14th - 16th. "They said they had a conflict with a sales meeting," said Show Director Stan Politi. "They certainly did themselves no favors by not coming."
In fact, there was a considerable Microsoft presence off the show floor, including Senior Vice President Steve Ballmer, who reportedly took part in a lively debate with IBM officials during one of the seminar sessions. "It wasn't really nasty," said Hewlett-Packard's Bill Crowe, another participant, "The IBM guy would call Windows a DOS extender, and then Ballmer would ask for an explanation of IBM's network strategy. It was perfect for me -- I just said we'd work with anybody's system if the customers demanded it."
Aside from Microsoft's absence, the show was a qualified success with an attendance of about 13,5000, according to Politi. Asked about IBM's Joe Guglielmi's jesting display of an "OS/2 and Windows Conference" sign at the OS/2 2.0 demonstrations, Politi said, "The way the number of OS/2 exhibitors is growing, I wouldn't deny any possibilities!"
News from the Windows and OS/2 Conference
Some news items from the show (a full report will appear in the November 1991 issue of Windows Magazine): Macromind demonstrated its Action! multimedia product, which integrates animated graphics and digital sound to produce "instant multimedia" presentations. Gold Disk demonstrated Animation Works, another product for multimedia presentation development, this time based on a movie animation "Cel" model. Unfortunately, neither product is shipping just yet; they're waiting on a runtime version of Microsoft's Multimedia Extensions to Windows, now not expected until October. A multimedia product which is shipping is Fluent Machines' Fluency for Windows -- a Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG) encoder/decoder system which puts live 30 frame-per-second digital video on the Windows desktop.
Beyond the multimedia area, hDC was showing beta versions of its new Power Launcher product, which amounts to a sophisticated command line and scripting capability for Windows. WordPerfect and Lotus were showing beta versions of their Windows products, and many other Windows vendors were represented.
Database vendors were heavily represented, with Borland (Paradox and dBase), Software Publishing (Superbase), and Software Products (Windows Base) all represented. Superbase is getting a lot of developer attention -- a new sales leads tracking product from Pyramid Data is the latest example. The looming entry of the new Borland-Ashton-Tate behemoth is causing some concern to the others. Software Products' Penny Mishray said, "Borland has the market presence and installed base, and they'll be in the top five. We're trying to work with them, rather than replace them -- we can read and write their files." Mike Silverman, of Software Publishing, said, "I'm always concerned about competition, and the combination of Borland and Ashton-Tate is a powerful one."
On the OS/2 side of the house, IBM's huge booth complex (the largest on the show floor) heavily featured OS/2 2.0, including the Workplace Shell and Developer's Workframe, 32-bit beta versions of third party products like Describe and Hyperaccess, and a number of vendors with other interesting products, including Coordinated Technologies Together, a workgroup product providing scheduling, appointments, integrated multi-document electronic mail and an automatic review and comment feature. Around the show floor, OS/2 products were much in evidence, including OS/2 versions of popular Windows products like Wall Data's Rumba, as well as old standbys like the Hamilton C-Shell.
Talk among developers on and off the show floor was largely about two topics: the 32-bit OS/2 2.0 versus NT debate, and the problems developers are having with Windows 3.1, which apparently is causing unexpected difficulties for some vendors.
